Summary
Looking for ways to improve your design planning and management process and tools? We’ve got you covered. Whether you are an individual contributor or a DesignOps manager, everyone needs ecosystem visibility at multiple levels of altitude to help answer questions like: What components am I working on next? What screens use those components? How many components and templates are complete? What content types will be using those components? You also need quick access to all the relevant design outputs that aren’t kept in a design system and are updated throughout the design process (e.g. information architecture, content types, taxonomies, interaction models, etc.) When you work with Limina, we not only help you get UX done, but we empower your teams with new processes and tools to address the design planning and management needs and system thinking gaps in your organization Interested in learning more? As we partner with you, we will include our design planning and management templates and tools along with the design deliverables. You will see the tools in action during our collaboration, and we will empower you to own and manage the tools going forward. Or, maybe you would prefer the mentorship or coaching approach? We can get to know your current state, introduce you to our process and tooling best practices, and guide you through the learning process Psst…inside scoop: Design planning and management is a core knowledge management function that is deployed as you iterate through the design process
Key Insights
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Managing design complexity requires connecting diverse inputs like business objectives, user research, and design systems across many tools.
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Design work happens at multiple 'altitudes,' from pixel-level components to high-level strategy, each needing tailored information views.
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No single source of truth can capture all required design information; instead, multiple hubs connected meaningfully form an effective information constellation.
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A missing but critical hub is the design planning and management tool that organizes design deliverables and their relationships.
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John and Ellie’s DP&M tool, built in Airtable, allows designers and managers to access, filter, and update relevant information easily without IT support.
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Personalized views in DP&M increase individual designer engagement by showing only relevant tasks and deadlines.
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DP&M dashboards give design leads oversight into the status of components, templates, content types, and consistency across the product’s information architecture.
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Effective DP&M use requires cultural adoption, leadership, and integration with existing rituals like standups or sprint planning.
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Consolidating scattered design artifacts into connected hubs reduces onboarding time, context switching, and silos.
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DP&M practices scale from solo designers wearing multiple hats to large enterprise design ops teams.
Notable Quotes
"When early humans looked at the night sky they made constellations to make sense of complexity — we need a similar system for design information."
"User research is only one part of the vast complexity of design information we need at our fingertips."
"We don’t need a single north star, we need a constellation that shows the full picture of connected information."
"Inputs live in many formats — PDFs, spreadsheets, Slack messages, Google slides, design systems — and often for good reasons that won’t change."
"Depending on your role and project, you might be working at different altitudes — UI surface, structure, strategy, or big picture — each needing different inputs."
"The design planning and management tool fills the gaps by showing relationships between design inputs that other tools don’t surface."
"All design information is already documented somewhere; DP&M just consolidates and connects it so everyone can access it easily."
"Personalized views in the DP&M tool help designers know exactly what to focus on in their upcoming work."
"Design leads gain better visibility into the status, consistency, and alignment of all design work across teams thanks to DP&M dashboards."
"Building a culture of continuous learning and responsibility is essential to keep DP&M tools relevant and updated."
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